"What it all comes to is a confused and incoherent mixture of stories which are as old as the hills but are still unfinished"

Friday, February 25, 2011

Podcast: Nicholson Baker

We had a great time yesterday with Nicholson Baker, who was visiting Cornell for a reading and to talk with students--he read from his most recent novel, The Anthologist, and followed up with an essay about giving public readings from The Size Of Thoughts.This interview is one of my favorites that I've ever done--we discussed the relationship between Nick's activist and formally experimental modes, his thoughts about literary fandom, how he arrives at the form and structure of his books (the answer quite surprised me), and the impermanence of literary texts. My thanks to the W6 readers who provided questions--I fit quite a few of them in!

We also talked, off-air, about his next book, due out in August, and I must say that it sounds like a doozy. If you liked Vox and The Fermata, this might be the one you've been waiting for.

I've been working for the past several weeks on what has already been my longest, most complex writing project.

The 'a ha!' moment has gradually faded, and I'm now faced with what I perceived to be the daunting task of fleshing out each of the several ideas floating around in my brain.

Then - this interview! It was so refreshing and even consoling to hear two writers whom I respect discuss some of the issues related to my own work.

Baker's statement about the richness of the details surrounding our lives certainly spoke to me. I also enjoyed hearing him speak of the liberating nature of simply 'making up' what comes next in a piece unencumbered by any adherence to historical events.

Thanks for including my question. Much appreciated. Now those floaters in my brain (brain-floaters?) seem a little more promising!

I'm so touched by this coincidence. I've had so many near misses meeting him in Maine, and hope to take his portrait this summer if he's willing. Now I will listen to the interview-- thanks, John. I loved Vox, thought it was so brilliant and human.